A trobairitz known only as the comtessa…
1175 CE
A trobairitz known only as the comtessa de Dia in contemporary documents is almost certainly named Beatriz and likely the daughter of Count Isoard II of Diá (a town northeast of Montelimar in southern France).
According to her vida, she was married to William of Poitiers, but was in love with and sang about Raimbaut of Orange (1146-1173).
It has been hypothesized that she was in fact married to William's son, Ademar de Peiteus, whose wife's name was Philippa de Fay, and that her real lover was Raimbaut de Vaqueiras.
Beatrice's poems are often set to the music of a flute.
Five of her works survive, including four cansos and one tenson Scholars have debated whether or not the Comtessa authored Amics, en greu consirier, a tenso typically attributed to Raimbaut d'Aurenga.
One reason for this is due to the similarities between this composition and her own Estat ai en greu consirier.
A second reason references the words in her vida, Et enamoret se d'En Rambaut d' Ashley, e fez de lui mantas bonas cansos [And she fell in love with Sir Raimbaut d'Aurenga, and made about him many good cansos] (Paden, William D. (1989). The Voice of the Trobairitz:Perspectives on the Women Troubadours. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.)
Her song A chantar m'er de so qu'eu no volria in the Occitan language is the only canso by a trobairitz to survive with its music intact.
The music to A chantar is found only in Le manuscript di roi, a collection of songs copied around 1270 for Charles of Anjou, the brother of Louis IX.